Octavian and Rachel
by 2Wolves
Summary: when Octavian goes to camp halfblood to meet the Oracle, bad things are sure to follow, but Annabeth and Reyna did not see this one coming. (also written for K.K's bday) Reveiws please!


**This was also written for my friend K.K (a lot of my stories were written for her)**

Octavian scowled at his surroundings. This was supposed to be a place for the children of the gods to learn, why the heck did it look so child like? Where was the order? The gods should be given more respect then little cabins fashioned after them!

Octavian walked through Camp half-blood, walking next to Reyna who was asking Annabeth questions. Reyna had decided it would be a good idea for her and Octavian to go to the Greek camp so they could combine head to figure out the prophecy. Octavian had protested to this idea over and over again, but did anyone listen? No! And of course it was him who HAD to go; they couldn't have asked any other child of Apollo. Well not like he could blame them, he was the smartest and the brightest out of all of them, but surely there was someone who could measure up to his skills just enough so that he could have gotten out of this? The disorder in this camp was making his insides sick. All he had to do was turn he head to the right, and he saw one girl he assumed was the daughter of Ceres... err sorry, 'Demeter' as the Greeks chose to call her; was chasing two boys who were sons of 'Hermes,;' screaming curses at them in ancient Greece. Octavian couldn't understand a lot of what they were saying, but he really didn't want to. Looking to his left, he saw some children of 'Ares' fighting with some kids of 'Aphrodite'.

"Octavian." Octavian snapped back to attention, to see Reyna looking at him. "Me and Annabeth are going to go see their leader Chiron and talk about upcoming battles. Butch here is going to bring you to visit their oracle, so you can talk about the prophecy."

"Oh so your separating? How don't I know you and the Greeks are going to plot against our camp?" Octavian asked.

Reyna glared at him. "Because I'm the praetor. Now go." She turned and followed Annabeth down the hill.

Octavian scowled, as he followed Butch up a hill. It was bad enough he was here, but did he have to walk so far? Ugh, that was just annoying! He suspected that Annabeth had sent Butch with him, so he could beat up Octavian if he complained. He would have to bring that up at the next meeting.

Finally Butch came to the entrance of a cave. Octavian couldn't see inside, because a large curtain was blocking off the room. Butch waved his hand towards the opening. "This is where she stays. I'm not sure if she's in right now, so you'll have to wait." Octavian frowned, and shoved past him, walking into the cave. Octavian almost fell over when he entered. He had been expecting cobwebs and old mummy artifacts in here, but instead, to him, it looked like an old hippie trailer form the sixties. The room was splat with all different colours, weird artwork everywhere. And was that a lava-lamp table?

Just then a girl walked in, from farther back in the cave. She was wearing a light green t-shirt, and dark blue jeans, both having a lot of holes in them, and a lot of paint marks. She had long red hair that was slightly curly, held back by a green bandana, which matched the colour of her eyes. She had light freckles on her pale face, but blotches of paint covered most of them. The girl looked up at him in surprise. "Oh, you must be Octavian right? Annabeth told me you were coming."

Octavian starred at her for a moment. Who the heck was she? Surely the great Oracle of Delphi wouldn't be dressed so, sloppy. Then it hit him. "Oh I see; you're the secretary."

The girl frowned at him. "Excuse me?"

Octavian grinned, happy to have figured it out. He sat himself down on one of the, most decent chairs, he could find. "It's ok; you can just tell your Oracle that I'll wait here till she's ready. I don't mind waiting."

The girl raised an eyebrow at him. "Uh huh." Octavian smiled, then turned back to the scrolls that had been brought here before hand. He had jotted down some notes for the prophecy. So far, he really didn't have any ideas, but he wasn't going to tell anyone that. Then he realised that the girl was still standing there.

"I'm sorry; I thought you were going to get the Oracle."

The girl scowled at him again. Octavian was used to people scowling at him. "Why? She's already right here."

"Huh?" Octavian stood up, his eyes spinning around the room. Then his eyes once again landed on the girl in the corner. "Wait, are, you are..."

The girl smiled, then gave a dramatic bow. "Rachel Dare, Oracle of Delphi, at your service."

Octavian just stood there, starring at her. This had to be a joke right? Octavian was expecting some old hag lady, not this girl, (who wasn't too bad to look at, despite her messy attire) would be the oracle that had gone missing from Roman culture centuries ago. "You're mortal." Octavian stated simply. Rachel nodded. "You're not even a demi-god." He said.

Rachel tilted her head, as if wondering if she could get away with ditching him here. "I'm a mortal who can see through the mist. I'm the Oracle's, what would you call it, translator, I guess. It speaks through me."

Octavian tilted his head. He didn't quite understand what she was saying, but not wanting to appear stupid, again, he changed the subject. "Yes, well, I guess we should get to work."

Rachel frowned. "That's it? You didn't tell me anything about yourself." Octavian watched her with a frown, as she sat herself in a chair across from him. "What does the Roman camp do for prophecies?"

Octavian smiled. Now he could redeem himself for his little mix-up. "I'll show you. Here, you have a stuffed animal, or a pillow?" Rachel frowned, but went into the other room, and returned with a large fuzzy unicorn. Octavian took it from her, placed it on the table in front of him, and started gutting it with his knife.

Rachel shrieked, causing Octavian to drop his knife. "What in Hades are you doing to Albert!?" she screamed again.

Octavian looked at her like she had lost it. "It's a stuffed animal."

"It's a fuzzy pink unicorn don't you dare call Albert just a stuffed animal!"

Octavian rolled his eyes, wondering if all mortal girls were like this. "You asked for a prophecy." He picked up his knife so he could resume cutting.

"Stop that!" She shrieked again. "If you cut him again I won't be able to sow him up!"

Octavian scowled, but complied to her wishes. "Fine, I don't know if I'll be able to see much with just this though." Octavian started poking through the stuffing, "aww I found some..." Octavian didn't finish his sentence. His face immediately turned red, his palms slightly sweaty.

"Octavian?" Rachel asked, slightly nervous. "What is it?"

Octavian threw the unicorn back at her. "Um, it's nothing. Sorry, there's not enough stuffing, I can't find anything."

Rachel raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, alright." She put the mutilated unicorn on a lamp table beside her.

Octavian cleared his breath, "I guess we should get to work."

"What that's it?" Rachel asked again.

Octavian starred at her in dismay. "What more do you want?"

Rachel sighed. "We just met each other, and you want to go straight to work? Geez man, you're at a camp, loosen up a bit."

Octavian stiffened in his chair. "And do what?" he asked.

Rachel frowned. "I don't know. What do Romans do for fun?"

Octavian tilted his head. "Make battle strategies, get drunk, um, do architecture."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Oh geez this is going to be hard. Ok, what do you like to do for fun?"

Octavian had to think about it for a moment. "Well, I like painting."

Rachel's eyes widened at that. "Really? I love painting!" before Octavian could say, anything, she ran into the back room, and grabbed two art canvases, and a bunch of different paints and paintbrushes. "Let's play a game. Whoever makes the best painting buys the other a pack of Twix bar from the Stoll brothers."

Octavian raised an eyebrow at that. "Don't we have to work on the prophecy?"

Rachel rolled her eyes. "We have all week to work on it. A few hours won't kill us." Octavian shrugged, grabbing the canvas from Rachel. While the two painted they talked. Rachel talked about her mortal life at home, the huge mansion that she lived in. She talked about her boarding school, which she enjoyed, because of the art classes, but she hated their stupid uniform, kilt and all. Octavian told her that his parents had brought him up in the Roman city, and he had never really left the city before this time.

Rachel nearly dropped her paintbrush at that. "You've never left your camp?" Octavian shook his head, shrinking slightly behind his canvas. Rachel sighed in exasperation. "Ok, change of bet, after we're done, tomorrow I'm bringing you to a Starbucks and whoever wins is buying."

Octavian frowned at her. "What's Starbucks?" Octavian asked.

Rachel sighed again. "Oh boy, you need help child." Octavian looked at her, but shrugged it off. After a little while, Rachel 'accidently' twirled her paint brush, causing some of her paint to fly towards Octavian, hitting him square in the face. Rachel looked up surprised, but seeing him, she couldn't help but laughed. Octavian did an imitation of Snape's face from harry potter, as the paint dripped down his face. "You did that on purpose."

Rachel shook her head, still laughing. "No, no, but you look really good in blue just saying." She laughed again. Octavian growled at her. He took his own paintbrush, soaking it in red paint, and flicked it in her direction. The paint slipped over the top, and dripped onto her painting. "Hey no fair, you got it on my painting!" she complained.

He laughed at her. "You deserved it."

Rachel glared at him. Then, she took her hand, and put it in some of her own paint. Then she stalked over to Octavian, and smacked her hand into his painting, leaving a large yellow handprint in the center. "You deserved that." She said with an evil grin. The two starred at each other, the calm before the storm.

"A roman never loses a fight." Octavian growled.

Rachel grinned confidently. "Oh I'm shaking. Let's see what you got toothpick!" that's when all Hades broke loose.

Reyna and Annabeth were treading the large hill towards Rachel's cave. "I must admit, I am rather nervous about joining forces with your camp."

Annabeth looked at her. "How so?" she asked.

"Well, Octavian has quiet a large influence on our camp. If he doesn't agree with your camp, I'm not sure how I'll convince everyone else. That is partly why I asked him to come."

Annabeth nodded. "It'll take a lot of convincing." Annabeth agreed.

Reyna smiled. "Hey you never know, maybe your Oracle already finished the job.

Annabeth laughed, speaking as she pushed aside the curtain to Rachel's cave. "Doubtful. Rachel and Octavian have very different person..." both Reyna and Annabeth froze in shock at the scene before them. Annabeth suspected that she would have been more prepared to see Hades and Zeus playing dress up dolls with Barbie. Rachel's cave was a mess, it was covered with splatters of paint, Octavian's scrolls spread out across the floor. Octavian and Rachel were at opposite sides of the cave, hiding behind tables, throwing huge blobs of paint at each other.

"Let's see how this yellow looks with that red hair of yours!" Octavian yelled, throwing a blob of yellow paint at her.

She ducked behind her table. "Ha-ha you missed stuffing brain!" she grabbed some pink paint. "This is revenge for Albert!" the two laughed at the name.

"WHAT IN ALL OF ROME IS GOING ON IN HERE?" Reyna screamed. Both of them seized fire, and looked towards Annabeth and Reyna.

"Oh, hi girls!" Rachel smiled. "We didn't notice you there." She giggled slightly. Annabeth starred at her, Rachel, giggling?

"We were just um." Octavian started. "Doing a little painting competition." She grinned goofily. Reyna couldn't take her eyes off him. He was covered in paint that never happened to Octavian and he was smiling? Like an actual, none backhanded-meaning smile, an honest smile?

"I, um, I can see that." Reyna started, still slightly in shock. Octavian and Rachel came up to them, looking like kids who had gotten in trouble.

Annabeth swallowed, trying to get over the shock. "I, I guess, you'll have to clean up later." She said, still not sure if she should get mad at Octavian, or go and hug Rachel. "Its dinner at the pavilion." She turned to Octavian. "You might want to get changed."

Octavian nodded, and started following the two out, before Rachel called after him. "Hey Octavian!" he turned back to her, and couldn't help admiring how the red paint on the side of her face brought out her eyes. "We still good for tomorrow?"

Octavian smiled. "Sure, but you're buying."

Rachel grinned. "Then it's a date!" Octavian nodded, before turning and walking down the hill with the girls. Reyna and Annabeth starred at him.

"What?" Octavian asked, suddenly uncomfortable.

"A 'date'" Reyna asked dubiously.

Octavian frowned. "Yeah, so?"

"You?" Reyna continued. "On a date?"

Octavian shrugged, walking on. He sat down in the spare room that the camp had given him in the big house. Octavian glanced over to the pile of stuffing he had abolished this morning, to see what his Prophecy would be for the day. He walked over to it, and looked at it again, to make sure he had seen it right. He smiled, it was an exact replica of the one he had seen in Rachel's stuffing, except reflected on its side.

Rachel looked around her cave, and started trying to put things back into order. She stopped when she found the remains of Albert her Unicorn. She sighed sadly, picking up the Unicorn. She remembered Octavian's flushed face when he had first looked at the remains, (she couldn't help thinking he looked slightly cute like that.) and wondering what was so weird about her prophecy. She sat down, calling on the spirit of Delphi to help her. She looked into the stuffing, and frowning at what the oracle showed her. Was that... a half of a heart? Rachel frowned. What the heck did that mean?


End file.
